The present invention generally relates to mover devices and semiconductor manufacturing apparatuses, and, more particularly, to a mover device and a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus in which a processing base reciprocates at a high speed.
In semiconductor manufacturing apparatuses and liquid crystal manufacturing apparatuses, a large number of production procedures are normally carried out for each substrate (semiconductor substrate).
More specifically, the following processes are carried out: a sputtering process for physically forming a thin film on a substrate; a CVD sputtering process for forming a thin film on a substrate through chemical vapor deposition; a lithography process for processing the shape of a thin film formed on a substrate; an impurity adding process for adding impurities to a film formed on a substrate; an etching process for etching a thin film formed on a substrate; an electronic beam process for performing minute processing on the surface of a substrate, using electronic beams; an ion beam process for performing minute processing on the surface of a substrate, using ion beams; an ion implanting process for implanting ions, using ion beams; a testing process for conducting a test on a substrate; and an exposure process to be carried out to form a pattern on a substrate.
When any of the above processes is to be carried out, the substrate needs to be precisely positioned in a processing chamber. Therefore, a processor to carry out each of the processes is equipped with a mover device that accurately moves a stage (a processing base) within a processing chamber or a vacuum processing chamber at a high speed. Each substrate is attached to the stage (the processing base) prior to an operation.
Especially, in an electronic beam process or an ion beam/ion implanting process that utilizes charged particle beams having small diameters in comparison with the area of a substrate, processing is performed on the entire area of the substrate. Therefore, it is necessary to repeatedly move and stop the processing base in one direction, or to reciprocate the processing base throughout the operation or in a part of the operation.
In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for substrate processing operation with higher throughputs and multi-variation limited-lot production systems. In response to such a demand, it is necessary to move a processing base in one direction at a higher speed or to reciprocate a processing base at a hither speed. In this trend, various mover devices that move a processing base in one direction at a high speed or reciprocate a processing base at a high speed have been developed.
When a processing base is moved in one direction or reciprocated at a high speed, the processing base naturally decelerates and accelerates to reverse the moving direction. At the times of accelerating, decelerating, starting, reversing, and stopping movements, great driving reaction forces are caused in the fixed base that supports the processing base. The driving reaction forces cause impact and vibration that are undesirable for movements of the processing base during operations. So as to eliminate undesirable impact and vibration, structures each having a fixed base formed by a platen with a great mass have been developed. With such structures, driving reaction force generation can be absorbed and restricted. An example of such structures is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-195130.
However, a mover device that exhibits a higher stopping accuracy, moves at a higher speed, and has a processing base with a higher performance, normally has a greater mass than a conventional mover device. As a result, greater driving reaction forces are generated from accelerating, decelerating, starting, reversing, and stopping movements of the processing base of such a mover device. Also, a mover device with a higher performance tends to have a heaver processing base. This also causes greater driving reaction forces. As a result, conventional methods of preventing driving reaction force generation cannot effectively restrict undesirable impact, vibration, and noise in a mover device.